THE LAND S VST KM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 457 



Mr. Mill, that while the rate of profit and of interest has a down- 

 ward tendency in a progressing community, rent, on the contrary, 

 tends to rise incessantly. Thus the landowners actually reap all 

 the benefit resulting from the progress made by the entire com- 

 munity in various directions. Part of this progressive increase 

 in rent may be traced to improvements made by the farmers 

 in the cultivation of the soil. By raising the rent the landlord 

 lays hold for himself of this advance in the value of the land 

 produced by those who cultivate it. 



The increase of the revenue the landlord derives from his land 

 is not the result of improvements executed by himself ; and the 

 fact adverted to is a general one, which may be met with every- 

 where. In whatever cases landlords have actually made improve- 

 ments, they have got the interest of the outlay in the shape of 

 an additional augmentation of their revenue. 



these reasons, I think that the increase of rent, teing due 

 to the progress of so* , and not to th< us of 



the landowners, ought not in justice to benefit the latter alone. 

 It would be but fair to divide this benefit. For a pen 

 the tenant should come in; and this he would p-t if he had a 

 Another port of it should fall to the share of the 

 community at large, in the shape of an increase of the land tax. 



At the present day the land tax (impdt foncie^ in Be 

 amounts to about 19,000,000 francs (760,000). It ought to 



